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Twins Vs. Orioles: 2-Run Eighth Dooms Minnesota In 4-3 Loss

Alex Burnett allowed two runs in the top of the eighth as the Orioles rallied for a win and series split on Thursday in Minneapolis.

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Twins Vs. Orioles Final Score: Minnesota Edged By Baltimore In Pitcher's Duel, 2-1

Offense was hard to come by on Wednesday night at Target Field, as the Minnesota Twins couldn't quite muster enough in the scoring column to slide past the Baltimore Orioles in a 2-1 defeat.

Although there were plenty of promising signs in the loss, such as third baseman Trevor Plouffe extending his hitting streak to 16 games and pitcher Francisco Liriano striking out 10 men, the Twins still ended up falling short after opening the series with a pair of victories. Getting the better of Liriano on the evening was Baltimore starter Tommy Hunter, who toss 74 of his 106 pitches for strikes through 7.1 innings to pick up his fourth win of the year.

With his name firmly entrenched in trade talks across the country, Liriano went six strong innings of four-hit ball to take the hard-luck loss. Of his 10 strikeouts, which comes on the heels off a 15-strkeout performance, Liriano made free-swinging first baseman Mark Reynolds strike out a whopping three times.

Rookie Cole De Vries will get the ball on Thursday for the fourth and final game of the series, as the surging Twins will hope to wrap up the series in impressive fashion.

For more on the Twins, be sure to visit Twinkie Town. For more on the Orioles, check out Camden Chat. And of course for the best MLB analysis on the web, head on over to Baseball Nation.

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Matt Capps Injury: Twins Closer Still Experiencing Shoulder Soreness, Will See Team Doctors Tuesday

Despite being brought back from the 15-day disabled list last week, Minnesota Twins closer Matt Capps is still reportedly feeling soreness in his throwing shoulder. Ben Goessling of the Pioneer Press is reporting that Capps is unavailable for Tuesday's game with Baltimore while he meets with team doctors to assess his status.

The right-handed reliever recorded a 1-2-3 inning in his first appearance back on the mound on July 14 and looked just fine, but revealed the soreness shortly after giving up a pair of runs on 18 pitches in Monday's blowout win. Capps is 14 of 15 on save chances this year and continues to play better than the guy who turned in a dismal 2011 campaign, so this is obviously distressing news that he might have to miss more time. Hopefully for the Twins a few extra days of rest, and not another DL stint, will be enough to get Capps back to full health.

For more on Capps' health, stay with this StoryStream. For more on the Twins, head on over to Twinkie Town. And for more MLB news and analysis, be sure to visit Baseball Nation.

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Twins Vs. Orioles Final Score: Minnesota Flat-Out Demolishes Baltimore In Series Opener, 19-7

In what will no doubt go down as one of the most lopsided baseball games of the summer, the Minnesota Twins completely destroyed the visiting Baltimore Orioles on Monday night in a 19-7 victory at Target Field.

In addition to smacking 20 hits against Orioles pitchers and producing runs in six of the eight half innings they played, the Twins also sent every last one of their nine starters across the plate at least once. More amazing is that as many as seven of those nine men scored twice, and three of them actually scored three times apiece. If only Ron Gardenhire could find a way to get his team to play like this every night.

Even after jumping out to a massive 7-0 lead after a wild first inning, Minnesota hitters never once appeared uncomfortable at the plate against Baltimore's revolving-door of relief pitchers. Leadoff hitter Denard Span finished 3-for-5 with five runs batted in, while his partner in crime atop the order Ben Revere chipped in a 4-for-6 night with three runs knocked in of his own. Not to be outdone, first baseman Justin Morneau finished 4-for-5 from the dish with three runs scored, helping to make a performance like his teammate Trevor Plouffe's, a 2-for-4 night where he extended his hitting streak to 14 games, feel a whole lot more obsolete than it should.

Looking to see some spillover from their ridiculous Monday performance in Tuesday's game two, the Twins will send Samuel Deduno to the hill to face Baltimore's Zach Britton.

For more on the Twins, check out Twinkie Town. For more Orioles coverage, visit Camden Chat. And for more MLB news and analysis, head over to Baseball Nation.

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Photographs by Micah Taylor, clairity, and Fibonacci Blue used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.